Prompt: From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be taking notes, doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher. What strategies are used by your CT to encourage students to attend and engage? Watch carefully how your CT moves around the room. Draw a map of the classroom and sketch a path showing (approximately) this movement. How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observations:
I recently observed Mrs. Cykert's chemistry class in which she reviewed some homework with the students as an entire class activity and then concluded the lesson with a groupwork activity that was designed to help the students deepen their understanding of chemical and physical changes. During the review time, Mrs. Cykert would read out a question and ask for volunteers to give the answer, then often polled the rest of the class through a show of hands to see if they all agreed. Most of the students were engaged at least minimally reading along with their own homework as she reviewed it, if not actively participating through volunteering answers. There were a few students near the back of the room who would occasionally make remarks to one another about something they found funny in the question or answer. It was a warm day and most of the class was rather subdued. The few times that students would get distractingly off-track she would just call their names or ask for the entire class to "settle down" without singling anyone out. There was one student in the front row of the class who had his head down for the majority of the homework review period, and while she asked him on more than one occasion to sit up or to read along, he would only comply momentarily then return his head to the table. During this homework review period, Mrs. Cykert stayed in the front of the room though she did walk back and forth across the front of the room to look someone in the eye during their response or to just try to get their attention.
Next, Mrs. Cykert counted the students off by 6 and split the students into 6 different groups, which were not the groups the students usually work in for things like partner work or activities. She instructed the groups to move apart throughout the classroom so that they had room to work and gave each group a large sticky pad sheet, markers and textbooks. Each group was assigned a small portion of the text that related to the current topic of chemical and/or physical change, but in a much more in depth manner, that they had not previously read. The groups were instructed to become experts on their subject and make a chart of key information to present to the rest of the class the next day. Three of the groups got their materials and got right to work, choosing someone to write up their chart and deciding which key items to put on the chart and in what color. Two of the groups needed much more guidance, coming to Mrs. Cykert with questions about where the materials were, what topic they were supposed to cover, or what pages the topic was on. With some more direction, they too got to work eventually. The last group had chosen to work at the back lab bench, an area not normally used because of how far back in the room it is. They got their materials right away but were more interested in socializing or complaining to even open the textbooks. Once she realized all the groups had their materials, Mrs. Cykert began walking around the room from group to group, asking questions about facts they were writing or answering any small questions they had about if this was important or not. When she got to the group in the back she asked them what topic they were supposed to be working on, then asked who was doing the writing. They hemmed and hawed a bit and eventually got to work after one of them came to the front to recheck the page numbers they were supposed to read. When there was 10 minutes left in the period Mrs. Cykert announced they had about 8 minutes left to work and made another full cycle of the room asking everyone how they were doing and seeing what they had done. At 2 minutes to the end of the period, Mrs. Cykert instructed the students where to place their sheets, and asked them to return the textbooks and markers to the front where they had been stored.
Reflections:
This particular class that I observed seems to be the "better behaved" of the two college prep chemistry classes that she has. They tend to at least participate with little intervention from the teacher, and, especially in this case, where the groups were randomly assigned in a way that they absolutely did not work with their usual partner or friend their groupwork seemed to be completed in a timely manner with very little off-topic time. I definitely think that student engagement is very essential, especially in chemistry where the topics are things that the students may not be able to fully grasp on their own just by reading the textbook. I like that Mrs. Cykert breaks up the long periods (66 minutes is a fully 16 minutes longer than the periods were when I was in high school) by either having multiple types of instruction in each period and having many opportunities for the students to move around, work together, or do hands-on explorations. The homework assignment that they reviewed in the first part of the lesson was one that had been begun the previous class period during the time left over after the completion of their latest inquiry activity. I know, especially from reading Fires in the Bathroom, that too much group work too often is as detrimental to student engagement as lecture only classrooms. As a result I hope to be able to find a good balance that works well for my students, and also to design or choose things that can be adapted from direct instruction to group work and vice versa so that if one period responds better to one form of instruction I can adapt if need be throughout the day. I also know that to ensure student engagement during group work I will need to move around the room, check in on all the groups if possible just to see how they are doing, answer any questions they have, but also just to be a reminder in the back of their mind that they are still in class with a task to complete.
Class Topic: College Prep Chemistry Grade: 10, 11, 12 Observed by: Sarah Evans
Observations:
I recently observed Mrs. Cykert's chemistry class in which she reviewed some homework with the students as an entire class activity and then concluded the lesson with a groupwork activity that was designed to help the students deepen their understanding of chemical and physical changes. During the review time, Mrs. Cykert would read out a question and ask for volunteers to give the answer, then often polled the rest of the class through a show of hands to see if they all agreed. Most of the students were engaged at least minimally reading along with their own homework as she reviewed it, if not actively participating through volunteering answers. There were a few students near the back of the room who would occasionally make remarks to one another about something they found funny in the question or answer. It was a warm day and most of the class was rather subdued. The few times that students would get distractingly off-track she would just call their names or ask for the entire class to "settle down" without singling anyone out. There was one student in the front row of the class who had his head down for the majority of the homework review period, and while she asked him on more than one occasion to sit up or to read along, he would only comply momentarily then return his head to the table. During this homework review period, Mrs. Cykert stayed in the front of the room though she did walk back and forth across the front of the room to look someone in the eye during their response or to just try to get their attention.Next, Mrs. Cykert counted the students off by 6 and split the students into 6 different groups, which were not the groups the students usually work in for things like partner work or activities. She instructed the groups to move apart throughout the classroom so that they had room to work and gave each group a large sticky pad sheet, markers and textbooks. Each group was assigned a small portion of the text that related to the current topic of chemical and/or physical change, but in a much more in depth manner, that they had not previously read. The groups were instructed to become experts on their subject and make a chart of key information to present to the rest of the class the next day. Three of the groups got their materials and got right to work, choosing someone to write up their chart and deciding which key items to put on the chart and in what color. Two of the groups needed much more guidance, coming to Mrs. Cykert with questions about where the materials were, what topic they were supposed to cover, or what pages the topic was on. With some more direction, they too got to work eventually. The last group had chosen to work at the back lab bench, an area not normally used because of how far back in the room it is. They got their materials right away but were more interested in socializing or complaining to even open the textbooks. Once she realized all the groups had their materials, Mrs. Cykert began walking around the room from group to group, asking questions about facts they were writing or answering any small questions they had about if this was important or not. When she got to the group in the back she asked them what topic they were supposed to be working on, then asked who was doing the writing. They hemmed and hawed a bit and eventually got to work after one of them came to the front to recheck the page numbers they were supposed to read. When there was 10 minutes left in the period Mrs. Cykert announced they had about 8 minutes left to work and made another full cycle of the room asking everyone how they were doing and seeing what they had done. At 2 minutes to the end of the period, Mrs. Cykert instructed the students where to place their sheets, and asked them to return the textbooks and markers to the front where they had been stored.
Reflections:
This particular class that I observed seems to be the "better behaved" of the two college prep chemistry classes that she has. They tend to at least participate with little intervention from the teacher, and, especially in this case, where the groups were randomly assigned in a way that they absolutely did not work with their usual partner or friend their groupwork seemed to be completed in a timely manner with very little off-topic time. I definitely think that student engagement is very essential, especially in chemistry where the topics are things that the students may not be able to fully grasp on their own just by reading the textbook. I like that Mrs. Cykert breaks up the long periods (66 minutes is a fully 16 minutes longer than the periods were when I was in high school) by either having multiple types of instruction in each period and having many opportunities for the students to move around, work together, or do hands-on explorations. The homework assignment that they reviewed in the first part of the lesson was one that had been begun the previous class period during the time left over after the completion of their latest inquiry activity. I know, especially from reading Fires in the Bathroom, that too much group work too often is as detrimental to student engagement as lecture only classrooms. As a result I hope to be able to find a good balance that works well for my students, and also to design or choose things that can be adapted from direct instruction to group work and vice versa so that if one period responds better to one form of instruction I can adapt if need be throughout the day. I also know that to ensure student engagement during group work I will need to move around the room, check in on all the groups if possible just to see how they are doing, answer any questions they have, but also just to be a reminder in the back of their mind that they are still in class with a task to complete.Class Topic: College Prep Chemistry
Grade: 10, 11, 12
Observed by: Sarah Evans